EU to finance the feasibility study of the Tallinn-Helsinki railway tunnel

The European Union is to provide €1 million to study the feasibility of a railway tunnel between Tallinn and the Finnish capital, Helsinki; the study is supposed to definitively identify whether such a tunnel would be viable.

The project is also to identify the potential technological possibilities for building the tunnel, and how it could affect the environment, the Finnish daily newspaper, Helsinkin Sanomat, reported on Wednesday. The study will also look into the matters of the safety of the potential tunnel, and analyse its profitability, comparing it with alternatives, like developing further the present ferry traffic.

The budget of the FinEst project is €1.3; 75% of this is financed by the EU’s central Baltic Programme 2014-2020. The rest of the budget comes from Estonia and Finland.

Sten Hankewitz is a lifelong journalist and Deputy Editor of Estonian World. Having lived in Estonia, Spain and the UK, he now resides in the United States. He loves to write and besides contributing to Estonian World and some occasional blogging, he writes for other media outlets in Estonia, Israel and elsewhere. He has strong convictions and he shows them unashamedly. You can follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook or check out his personal blog. You can write to Sten at sten@estonianworld.com.